Coming Pottsgrove Calendar Front-Loads Its Staff Days

POTTSTOWN PA – Pottsgrove School District buildings are closed again today (Tuesday, Feb. 19, 2013), allowing students to stay home as the district conducts an in-service and staff development day for most employees. And when the next academic year rolls around, Superintendent Shellie Feola predicted last week, students and parents should expect a calendar similar to the one already in place.

“It won’t be a lot different from what we’ve already got,” Feola said last Tuesday (Feb. 12), as she presented a draft of the calendar for Board of School Directors’ review. It will, however, be “front-loaded” with more staff development days designated earlier during the year, she added.

The reason: new state and federal education requirements will demand teachers, assistants, aides, and others know as much as possible about coming changes sooner rather than later.

Pottsgrove and other districts are in the process of aligning what are known as common core standards to ensure students statewide all learn the same lessons in the same grade levels. “That’s going to mean extensive staff development and new materials,” Feola said, which in turn requires training time.

Districts also will deal with Pennsylvania’s newly implemented teacher effectiveness program, which in part judges how well teachers do their jobs based on student performance in classes and across a school as a whole. That, too, will take training time, Feola said.

Feola said the teachers’ union, the Pottsgrove Education Association, also will have an opportunity to review the calendar. She did not specify when it would be publicly available.

Next year’s first day of school is scheduled for Aug. 27 (Tuesday), Feola said; its last day, June 10 (2014).

Students were out of school Monday (Feb. 18) as well, in observance of the President’s Day federal holiday.